Helping Teenage Children Set Digital Boundaries
I recently watched a webinar by the Prevention Connection about a new teen dating public awareness campaign that will be released in February of 2009. As an older adult who is somewhat tech savvy now, but who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, my eyes were opened. Cell phones, IM, text messaging, and Face Book, etc. are digital extensions of the user's physical self and abusive relationships are likely to start at the digital level. Teens can text each other all night long without the parent even noticing it. Teens can convince each other to send provocative pictures of each other over cell phones and the pictures never have to be developed where a responsible adult might discover it. There are many ways for the abuse to occur and this is different for each teen. Thirty text messages in one hour might not be abuse for one teenager in a healthy relationship who welcomes the contact and cannot wait to receive the next but it might be abuse for another who would rather not have
so many or is trying to do homework. Check back in February and I will connect you to the campaign to learn more about helping your teen set healthy digital boundaries.
Joan Stirling